Monday, April 6, 2009

Reflections Of The Way Life Used To Be

You may not recognize this young, barefoot coed. She'd had a bit part in a Marx Brothers movie and the year before, in 1949, she received strong reviews in John Huston's "The Asphalt Jungle". Even though she'd just been signed to a 7 year contract with 20th Century Fox, she was studying literature and art at UCLA as a back up in case her acting career didn't pan out.

When a photographer from Life Magazine came calling to shoot a feature in 1950, it was the break she'd been waiting for. The above picture was part of that shoot. Three years later, when she first posed for Playboy, Marilyn Monroe became a household name.

The photograph is by Edward Clark, courtesy of the Life Magazine archives.